UPDATED: Three dead, including shooter, at mall near Portland

PORTLAND — Police say three people are dead, including the gunman, after a shooting at a shopping mall in the Portland area.

Updated 5:55 p.m. PORTLAND — Police say three people are dead, including the gunman, after a shooting at a shopping mall in the Portland area.

Clackamas County sheriff's Lt. James Rhodes says the gunman fatally shot two people, and another person was wounded, in the afternoon shooting at the Clackamas Town Center.

Rhodes says the gunman is also dead but he would not say how he died.

Hundreds of holiday shoppers and store employees evacuated the mall after the shots rang out around 3:30 p.m. Many others hid in stores, and Rhodes says deputies are going through the mall to get them out.

Kira Rowland told KGW-TV that she was shopping at Macy's with her infant when the shots started.

“All of a sudden you hear two shots, which sounded like balloons popping,” Rowland told the station. “Everybody got on the ground. I grabbed the baby from the stroller and got on the ground.”

Rowland said she heard people screaming and crying.

“I put the baby back in the stroller and ran like hell,” Rowland said. “It was awful. It was shots after shots after shots like a massacre.

“It was just awful.”

Holli Bautista, 28, said she was shopping in the Macy's for a Christmas dress for her daughter when she heard a two or three pops that sounded like firecrackers.

“I heard people running and screaming and saying 'Get out, there's somebody shooting',” she told The Associated Press. “It was a scene of chaos.”

She said hundreds of shoppers and mall employees started running, and she and dozens of other people were trying to escape through an exit in the department store.

Bautista said the Macy's opens into the food court area, where it was reported the shootings took place. Bautista said it sounded like the shots were coming from that direction.

Once Bautista made it out of the mall, police officers were directed her and the other shoppers across the street to another shopping center.

As she looked across the street, Bautista said she could see hundreds of police officers, firefighters and emergency workers pouring in.

“They're coming in from multiple different agencies. There's tons of ambulances lined up,” she said.

Macy's employees Pam Moore and Austin Patty told the AP the shooter was short, with dark hair, dressed in camouflage. He had body armor and a rifle and was wearing a white mask, they said.

“I heard about 20 shots and everyone hit the ground,” Moore said. “That's when we all just ran.”

— Associated Press

Updated 4:55 p.m. from wire and local reports

PORTLAND — Sheriff's deputies say there has been a shooting in a shopping mall near Portland. Media outlets in the Portland area are saying two people are known dead and at least one injured.

One witness at the Clackamas Town Center told television station KATU at least two people were shot, and he saw sheets put over them.

Another witness told the station she saw people screaming and parents grabbing their children as they fled the mall.

That witness said the gunman had a rifle and was wearing a camouflage outfit and a mask and, possibly, body armor.

Police dispatchers received reports that a shooting may have occurred near Macy's and that a man was seen with an AR-15 rifle near the mall's food court.

Another witness said ambulances were arriving at the scene.

Entrances to the mall have been blocked off.

No further details were immediately available from the Clackamas County sheriff's office.

4:30 p.m. PORTLAND — Emergency dispatchers in Portland are receiving reports that a man with a rifle reportedly fired as many as 20 shots inside a shopping mall.

The Oregonian reports the dispatchers received reports that a shooting may have occurred near Macy's inside the Clackamas Town Center and that a man was seen with a rifle near the mall's food court.

Clackamas County sheriff's deputies are responding. Deputies have not been able to confirm that a shooting has occurred.